SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
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Science and technology in Gurkani Âlam are, overall, perhaps a generation more advanced than is the case in the real world. In the field of electrical engineering Gurkani Âlam is perhaps a century more advanced, due to the much earlier discovery of electromagnetism, in 1742. This greater degree of advancement arises from synergy between European and Indian thinkers since the seventeenth century, when there was both a two-way infusion of ideas, and also a larger number of minds investigating the natural world.
The love of gadgets by the nobility of the Mughal Empire drove the development of numerous inventions in the 'Age of Gadgets' before mass production and large-scale industrialisation took hold. Inventors were funded by nobles to produce devices to entertain, amuse, excite or help them. These included such devices as steam cars and calculating machines. In most cases these devices, that begin as toys for the rich, evolved over time into things of general use.
Because of the earlier development of electrical technology, including wind and water generators, there has been significantly less burning of fossil fuels in Gurkani Âlam compared to the real world. As such cities are less afflicted with smogs and pollution than those of the real world. In addition, the world is suffering from much less human impact on climate - much less global warming. In fact there are some indications that the climate is cooling, perhaps, in time, to a new ice age.
Because of the greater development of and higher populations in the east Indies [the Indonesian region] tectonic activity and volcanic eruptions there, such as those of Tambora in 1815 and Krakatoa in 1883, have been more studied, advancing the sciences of vulcanology and seismology significantly more than in the real world. Because of this the death tolls of later volcanic eruptions and earthquakes have been reduced over those of the real world.
Ecology (here known as Oikologie) and equivalents of Chaos Theory and the Gaea hypothesis (here known as the Teoria do Ponto Inicial [Initial Point Theory in Portuguese] and Puraanaa Prithvee Kalpanaa [Living Earth Hypothesis in Hindi] respectively) all exist in this world and are, in general, more developed than in the real world.
The history and archaeology of Afghanistan and Central Asia are much better understood in this world than in the real world. Related to this, the copy of the Baburnama [the memoirs of the first Mughal Emperor] that exists in this world is complete rather than missing eleven years of entries as the version of the real world does.
Animals and plants are classified in either Latin or Persian or both. This results from the fact that in the eighteenth century there emerged two independent systems of classification for plants and animals [rather than the one of the real world], one used by European scientists and one by those in India. These have, over time, merged into one.
Electronic microprocessor-based computers exist in Gurkani Âlam, and are, like much else, perhaps a generation more advanced than those of the real world. The major difference between the computers of Gurkani Âlam and the real world is that unlike the computers of the real, which use a binary system based on 0 and 1, the computers of Gurkani Âlam use a trinary, three-valued, system based on -1, 0 and +1, that is, base three. These actually have a number of significant advantages over binary computers.
There are also the Laces, an equivalent of the internet which, much like the real world, since the 1950s grew out of military and governmental communications networks, and the spread of telegraphic and telephonic communications systems around the world. However, with the rather greater limitations on free speech that exist in Gurkani Âlam, the Laces of Gurkani Âlam are much more structured and controlled, and much less anarchic, than those of the real world.
There are actually two types or sets of Laces [internets] in Gurkani Âlam. First, there are the official Laces, systems using physical cables and fixed computer systems. These are, in general, controlled by the governments of the world, and their content and access to them controlled by them. The different nations of the world use a wide variety of different systems and protocols for their Laces, but over time interfaces and gateways between the different Lace systems have developed, so that most Laces do link to all of the others.
However, in addition to this a number of unofficial Laces have developed using encrypted signals sent over a mixture of telephone, radio and communication via power cables to link computers. The first systems of this kind were developed in the Dominions of the Anglo-Danish Empire by the Freetrader organised crime groups, from whom they are known as the Ghost Lace (GL) because they are made from an 'invisible Lace'. These GLs seem to have been developed by the innovative use of existing technology rather than as something entirely new. Because of its origin in criminal activity, as well as their being out of official control and supervision these Laces are illegal in many countries, but despite this their use, and their linkages to the official Laces of the world, are becoming more and more widespread.
Because of the ENL being an unofficial development the Lace [internet] as a whole is about as well developed in Gurkani Âlam as it is in the real world at the same time, although encryption and data transport technologies are considerably more advanced.
With the much more advanced electrical engineering of Gurkani Âlam as compared to the real world, electrically-powered vehicles are very widely used around the world. These include railway engines, road vehicles and also off-road and air vehicles of most kinds, including military vehicles. Because of the patchy nature of the early electrical systems, particularly in the Mughal Empire, early electrical vehicles had chargers that allowed them to take many different forms of electricity, with differing voltages, currents and so on. Most electrical vehicles, particularly in the Mughal Empire, continue to use flexible chargers of this kind.
The relative amounts of road and rail transport used varies from nation to nation depending on the history of their respective transport systems [not unlike the case in the real world]. In some places rail is used for most things, with railways delivering to hubs and cars and lorries used only locally. In others roads are used for almost everything.
ROAD TRANSPORT
Road vehicles in this world have evolved from carts and carriages, in much the same way as the real world. They are thus largely based on a four-wheeled design, with one pair of wheels being steered. Roads are not unlike those of the real world, with concrete or Persianised [tarmaced] surfaces, good roads having been developed for military and trade purposes, much as in the real world.
Pneumatic tyres have not been invented in this world. Instead wheels have individually sprung segments, rather like a circular tank track, with a rubberised 'foot' on the end to reduce noise and road wear. Each segment has its own shock absorber (or sometimes two), and often a flexible link with adjacent segments to keep dirt from getting between them. This gives suspension, smoothes the ride and gives immunity to punctures and other damage.
Electrically-driven trams and trolleybuses are also widely used in many cities around the world.
RAILWAYS
Because of the earlier development of electrical technology, almost all railways around the world use electrical power, either from internal super-batteries, or from an external source. In some places, such as India and parts of Europe, trains using magnetic levitation are beginning to replace more conventional types, particularly on routes where speed is of the essence. Where non-electric trains are used, they have the engine at the front of the train as in the real world, but with the fuel bunker at the very front, then the driver's compartment, with the engine machinery behind that. This allows quicker and easier refuelling of the train.
There are a number of railway gauges in use around the world, in addition to the different ones in use within the Mughal Empire and Dakshina Nad. England-Denmark, France, Canada-Louisiana, the Ottoman Empire, the Sarajevo Pact, the Holy Russian Empire and the Brasealean Empire all use different gauges. Ling China and the Persian Empire use one of the more common of the Mughal railway gauges. The nations of South America use either the French or Brasealean gauge depending on their historical alliances. Most railway gauges are roughly the same [and not too different to those used in Europe in the real world]. Only the Holy Russian Empire differs greatly from this using an eight foot gauge dramatically larger than any other in the world. Thus their rail network is almost completely incompatible with that of the rest of the world, but its vast trains, mostly running on concrete rails, allow long journeys across the vastness of Russia without refuelling. Mughal-compatible rail lines extend beyond the Mughal Empire into the Central Asian Khanates, Ling China, Persia and the Ottoman Empire.
Underground railways are used in cities around the world to transport both people and goods. The first of these was opened in 1850 in the city of Warsaw in Poland in the Sarajevo Pact. The most extensive underground railway system in the world is that of Delhi in the Mughal Empire, though as with much of the infrastructure of the Mughal Empire this actually consists of a number of largely independent systems running to and from different parts of the Delhi region. The Mughal Empire has a few other underground railway systems in its cities but mostly relies on elevated railways for mass transportation of its people.
Many of the nobility of the world, particularly in the Mughal Empire, have long had private railway lines leading to their estates and so on, and their own private railway carriages and other rolling stock. In many cases, to help supplement their income, they have also allowed their branch lines to be used in the carrying of goods.
AIRCRAFT
Both heavier-than-air aircraft, known as Vimanas, after the mythological flying machines described in the ancient literature of India, and lighter-than-air aircraft known as havajahaz [airships] are widely used.
Heavier than air aircraft are fairly similar to those of the real world, though somewhat more technologically advanced. Lighter-than-air vehicles tend to use either hot air or steam to lift powered airships. Some more advanced designs also use helium gas. All of them are much safer than hydrogen-filled airships. [Steam has a lift per unit volume that is about sixty percent that of helium, and is vastly cheaper and easier to handle; see here, here and here for more details.] Havajahaz are widely used for a wide range of military purposes.
Over time the manufacturers of fixed-wing aircraft of this world have developed their designs so that now most aircraft are either flying wings or lifting bodies, depending on their intended role. A few are combinations of both, with the whole aircraft being one low aspect ratio wing, that is a flat, angular lifting shape [this is not unlike the Facetmobile of the real world]. Ground effect aircraft are also used quite widely, particularly by the militaries of the world.
While fixed-wing aircraft are the most common type of heavier-than-air aircraft in Gurkani Âlam, there are also a minority of rotary-winged designs. In this world helicopters have never been widely adopted, and are considered an over-complicated curiosity. Instead Acer-Ala ['maple-wing'; autogyros] are used in similar roles. Because of this seaplanes remain in use in some roles, particularly search and rescue [which the real world was taken over by helicopters, helping to make seaplanes obsolete].
SPACE TRANSPORTATION
Space travel is both more advanced and at more of a disadvantage in Gurkani Âlam than in the real world. The more advanced science and technology there, particularly in the field of electrical engineering, means that solar power, mass driver and ion drive systems are all much more developed than in the real world, and these form the main drive systems used by space-to-space vehicles. The Dakshina Nad leads the world in space and space technology.
A spin-off of this, the lunar mass-driver ring known as the Qamari Mosht [Lunar Fist], was the decisive weapon that ended the Long War, and which now worries many of the nations of the world. Also used for civilian purposes, it has launched a number of probes to all of the worlds of the solar system, as well as supplies to the manned mission that landed on Mars in 1999.
Nuclear thermal rockets are also reasonably well developed, and are used by many nations for space-to-space transportation when higher accelerations than an ion drive can provide are needed. Nuclear pulse propulsion, using nuclear explosions for propulsion [much like Project Orion of the real world] is not used after the catastrophic failure of the Russian vessel, the Archangel Mikhail [Archangel Michael], in 1959.
For launching from the Earth, chemical rockets are still used, although usually with electromagnetic catapults providing an initial boost. Single-stage-to-orbit vehicles not unlike the Delta Clipper of the real world are the most common form of ground-to-space transportation, although other types of reusable space vehicle are also used, as well as expendable launchers.
There are a number of types of cheap, simple and reliable non-reusable chemical space launch rockets made and used in the more developed nations of the world. The largest of these can launch hundreds of tons into orbit, and are, in general derived from the Archangel Uriil [Uriel] class of rocket developed by the Holy Russian Empire and first used by them in 1961 [this is itself similar to the real world Sea Dragon design put forward in the early 1960s for a heavy lift launcher, but which was never built].
Experiments are just beginning to be carried out on space facilities and other structures supported on a stream of massive pellets, allowing towers and stations to be held up against gravity, which in the real world is known as the Space Fountain concept.
Despite all of this, space travel close to the Earth is more limited than in the real world. This stems from the attempt by the Holy Russian Empire to close space, the ultimate high ground, to its enemies. They did this by launching vast numbers - in the billions - of pieces of gravel into low-earth and geosynchronous orbits around the Earth, making these regions of space very unsafe for satellites in the long term. [One rocket carrying a cubic metre of gravel, weighting perhaps three tonnes, divided into one cubic centimetre chunks, would put a million such chunks into space. For comparison in the real world there are some six hundred thousand objects of one centimetre or larger in Earth orbit.] Although the subset of this space-denial debris which is in low Earth orbit is gradually re-entering and being lost, there is still a great deal of it, and the debris in higher orbits will persist for a very long time. A number of ideas of clearing this debris have been put forward, but so far none have been adopted on a large scale.
Spacecraft launched from the Earth also have to be tougher and more compartmentalised than those in the real world, to survive a debris impact. It has also forced many space-based facilities further from the Earth, in particular to the Moon, or to the Kannankeril [Lagrange] points.
Modern low-orbit spacecraft are reasonably well-armoured to protect them against the high density of space debris; this is generally passive physical armour, but experimental active and/or electric armour systems are also coming into use. Most also have anti-debris guns, SWEDS [radar] or MOBSOLUR [lidar] guided weapons using slugs of solid carbon dioxide to blow away incoming debris without adding to the sum of it (as the slugs sublimate away into gas).
There are a number of settlements on the Moon in addition to those associated with the Qamari Mosht, some of a scientific nature, some commercial. Many of these are underground facilities, but some use greenhouses (augmented by artificial lighting during the two weeks long Lunar night) for growing food.
Since the end of the Long War the Mughal Empire and Dakshina Nad have begun licensing out the building and use of some of the space-based technologies that they have developed over time. In particular long-term life-support systems designed for use in space have found application in the much less hostile environment of Earth, and these are allowing the beginnings of large-scale permanent colonisation of the more hostile areas of the Earth, such as Antarctica and the deserts of Marege.
WATER TRANSPORTATION
Since the early twentieth century many nations have adopted the use of multiple-hulled ships, particularly for military purposes as these designs give more deck area for weaponry and other equipment. [This is not unlike some designs proposes recently in the real world, such as this.]
The Holy Russian Empire has made use of what are known as Korabl Leda [Ice Ships], vast vessels built of reinforced ice, as vast, slow, largely unsinkable mobile air bases. [These are basically the same as the ship proposed under Project Habakkuk.] Although they were destroyed in the last days of the Long War, there is nothing stopping them being rebuilt in the future.
Some nations, in particular the Dakshina Nad, make use of military vessels propelled by a magnetohydrodynamic drive. This is as effective as conventional propeller-based propulsion but much more stealthy. In particular submarines driven by this means are becoming widely used.
OTHER
In Central Asia skimmers [hovercraft] are widely used as a means of personal transportation, although horses are still very common there.
The variety of different railway gauges that developed in the Mughal Empire led to the development of containerisation much earlier than in the real world. The convenience of this when applied to other forms of transport soon became clear, leading to its use on the road and in ships for, by the present day, more than a century.
Because electromagnetism was discovered roughly one hundred years earlier than in the real world, electrical technology developed roughly in parallel with steam power. As such it is much more advanced than in the real world, with, in particular, much more advanced battery technology, so that by the present day it is perhaps three generations more advanced than in the real world.
Because of its origin in small-scale electrical generators using wind and water power, technologies for harvesting these renewable sources of energy on a small (household) level are very well developed and commonplace, although large-scale systems, such as nuclear power stations, are also used where necessary. Because of this use of small-scale energy supply systems and electricity, the world as a whole is much less dependant on fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy resources, though these are used for some applications (such are in aircraft). Wind turbines and so on have existed for much longer than in the real world and have many very efficient designs, most of them close to the theoretical maximum [given how long wind turbine technology has existed in this world these are of a highly advanced design, similar to an evolved form of the real world Turby Wind Turbine]. Some places where the conditions allow it also use 'rainmills' self-starting systems using rainwater or other liquids (such as sewage) channelled down or over them (or past supplementary rotors on their base) to generate electricity.
By the modern day cities across the world, particularly in India, have many, many wind turbines on buildings, as much as are possible given architectural constraints and not having some turbines blocking others. They also use other integrated generating systems, such as solar cells, where these are practical. Many cities have laws governing the placement of wind turbines to avoid 'wind wars' - rivalries over access to the available wind power or blocking one another which has in the past lead to violence and ill-feeling. Only some religious buildings are an exception to this. Bridge piers generally have hydroelectric generators built into them. Where the weather conditions allow houses have a wind turbine or a hydroelectric power source. Outside cities, dams provide hydroelectric power, rivers have hydroelectric barrages across them, and where possible tidal and wave power are also used. All of this grew out of the initial Indian use of electricity on a small, local scale without a power distribution grid leading to a proliferation of small wind turbines all across India powering small-scale electrical machinery, and spreading from there to the rest of the world.
In terms of nuclear power technology, fission power plants of various kinds exist and are in use around the world, at sea, and in space. However, the lack of a need for massive new energy sources as well as better batteries and other associated technology retarded commercial nuclear power and nuclear power technology in general relative to the real world, though it did find use in specialised applications such as submarines and in space. Although work on nuclear fusion power is taking place in a number of research centres around the world, so far this has not succeeded in creating a viable fusion reactor design.
Coal and oil are still used for energy in some places, but they are much more used as raw materials for plastics and similar applications.
Only in the Holy Russian Empire, where the church and government desires to restrict access to technology among the common people, is energy generation an entirely centralised operation, using large power stations, usually nuclear or hydroelectric, to provide energy for the government, military and the Technical and Industrial Monasteries.
A side effect of electricity being developed earlier and being a serious competitor with the use of fossil fuels is that there has been much less fuel burnt. This means that the greenhouse effect is not really occurring in Gurkani Âlam, and climatologists worry about the world slipping into another ice age in the next few thousand years. This lack of a greenhouse effect, at least to the extent of the real world, means that there are colder winters in the late twentieth century, and a few very bad winters, though there is also speculation that this is also a side-effect of the dust put into the atmosphere by the projectiles used to bombard the Holy Russian Empire at the end of the Long War, as well as the numerous nuclear weapons used during that war.
Because of large amount of debris in Earth orbit, communication via satellite is a more complex affair Gurkani Âlam than the real world, requiring satellite tracking systems.
For the same reason there is no equivalent of the Global Positioning System in this world. Instead, a network of ground-based beacons spread across all of the nations of the former Indian Alliance and its allies, along with various other nations, provides much the same functionality.
As with much of the other technology of Gurkani Âlam, medical science is perhaps a generation more advanced than that of the real world. In particular tropical medicine more advanced than in the real world due to the more advanced state of the Indian nations. In particular malaria was eliminated from the world in 1984.
Numerous drugs and other treatments derived from traditional medicine, for example Indian Ayurvedic medicine, are and have been part of mainstream medicine for a long time and are widely used. Other traditional Indian and other remedies are more widely accepted and used than in the real world, for example the first contraceptives and abortifacients made from processed unripe papaya fruit which were first marketed in Sinhale in 1859.
Genetic technology is in general more advanced than in the real world, with the human genome being mapped by 1995.
Cloning technology does exist, including of mammals. However, this is by no means a perfect process, and no successful human cloning has yet taken place, at least as far as the public is aware. Human cloning is banned by many governments, on ethical and religious grounds. On the other hand, the technology to clone tissues and organs to replace those lost to injury or disease without problems of rejection is fairly well developed, largely due to driving urgency of the Long War and its many victims. This cloning technology also includes the ability to reattach severed nerves that would not otherwise heal naturally, such as those in the spine, and also allows the treatment of some types of brain disorder, such as the after-effects of strokes.
Surgery and transplant techniques are advanced, with organ transplants being commonplace surgery. A number of successful head transplants have been performed in recent years, although these are so far very rare. Condemned criminals are harvested for their organs in many of the nations of the world, though the precise criteria for this vary from nation to nation.
Again arising partly from the Long War, prosthetic limb technology is well developed, with robotic limbs controlled by the nervous system of the wearer fairly commonplace in the richer nations of the world. Some mechanical replacement organs, such as hearts, and electronic replacement sense organs, such as eyes and ears, also exist. These latter do not give as high quality a sensory signal as the real sense organ, but they are much better than nothing [and better than anything available in the real world of 2007].
Research is taking place on replacement limbs and organs that given superhuman abilities to the wearer, and also on powered exoskeletons, but so far the many technical problems associated with integrating these with a normal human body have not been overcome. In addition there are still many ethical considerations regarding the creation of cybernetic 'super-men' that have not been resolved.
Because of the development of synthetic [plastic]-eating bacteria by the Holy Russian Empire during the Long War, where plastics are used they are formulated to be resistant to these bacteria; in most cases ceramics and alloys are used instead.
There have been experiments with combat drugs, intended to boost the performance of their soldiers, in the Holy Russian Empire. Much of this involved experimentation on human 'volunteers' consisting largely of heretics and other enemies of the state. However, none of these were considered sufficiently effective and lacking in side effects to be put into general use.
As with everything else, military technology in Gurkani Âlam is perhaps a generation more advanced than in the real world, and has also taken some different paths to technology in the real world.
Nuclear weapons exist in this world, in a wide variety of types and yields, though in this world they are known as Pasupata, after the ultimate weapon of that name described in the Hindu epic of the Mahabarata. Over the course of the Long War they have been used much more widely than is the case in the real world, possibly contributing to the apparent current global cooling.
Because of the long use of rockets in warfare in India, they are used in guns as widely as gunpowder-driven projectiles. From long years of experimentation with different types and combinations of weapons, and in particular beginning with the Dyagilev Gun of 1808 [which are very similar to the Voss Musket Rocket of the real world] rocket projectiles are used in many rifles [much like gyrojet rifles in the real world], while gunpowder is used in the vast majority of pistols. This is because the need for a rocket projectile to accelerate makes them ineffective at short range, but very effective at long range.
For the same reasons, in terms of vehicle-mounted weapons a mixture of rockets, gunpowder-driven projectiles and Bohemians [magnetic accelerator guns] (named after their country of origin) are used.
Vimanas [aircraft] tend to use larger rockets for long-range combat, and small rocket projectiles for short-range engagements; the lightness and lack of recoil makes them advantageous for them.
Elephants [tanks] are used by all of militaries of the world, and come in a vast array of types. They use either rockets or gunpowder-driven projectiles. Armed skimmers [hovercraft], which are widely used where the terrain allows, particularly in Central Asia and North America, use similar weapons.
The high power requirements of magnetic accelerator guns have limited their use, but they can be found in fixed installations, large mobile artillery and on larger ships in all of the navies of the world. In particular a number of nations have fielded nuclear-powered submarines equipped with magnetic accelerator guns. And of course they form the basis of the Qamari Mosht [Lunar Fist] launcher on the Moon.
Despite the development of rocket technology earlier than in the real world, this world does not make use of ICBM technology. This arises from the fact that space travel, space-based weapons and the use of a space station occurred significantly before the development of nuclear weapons, giving the ability to intercept ICBMs in flight. Instead, nuclear-tipped cruise missiles of a wide variety of designs are used.
Research is taking place in the use of directed energy weapons [such as lasers] in war, but so far the fragility and power requirements of these has meant they not yet considered suitable for deployment. On the other hand undirected energy weapons in the form of electromagnetic bombs, designed to disable electronics with an electromagnetic pulse, have been used since the beginning of the Long War in a number of theatres of war.
There are a number of types of autonomous armed military robots in use around the world, particularly in the Sarajevo Pact. They are generally used for border patrols and other roles where friendly fire incidents are unlikely to occur. Much more common than these are 'intelligent' but non-autonomous weapons systems, equivalent to more advanced versions of various kinds of guided weapons from the real world. Because of the more advanced sensor and computing technology of this world these are largely immune to jamming and other forms of electronic countermeasures, making the airspace of an enemy nation a very hostile place for an encroaching aircraft.
Supercavitating torpedoes [similar to the Russian VA-111 Shkval torpedo of the real world; see also] and other weapons utilising supercavitation to increase their underwater effectiveness have been widely used by the navies of the world since 1952.
Since the Qamari Mosht was constructed, most nations have been moving their militaries to a more mobile footing, and also hiding what they can to avoid possible bombardment. For this reason military submarines have become used much more by all nations than was the case in the past. Nuclear-powered submarines, in particular, are used quite widely, while aircraft carriers are considered very vulnerable.
Another side-effect of the Qamari Mosht is that Cislunar space is heavily observed by SWEDS [radar] from all nations, particularly those who were part of the One Truth Alliance in the Long War. This has led to observations of and several missions to near-Earth asteroids, as well as two incidents of ones that potentially threatened the Earth being shattered by projectiles from the Qamari Mosht.
Havajahaz [airships] are widely used for carrying troops and a number of heavier-than-air aircraft for long-duration patrols over (for example) the steppes of Central Asia. They are also used as mobile airborne military bases, and as airborne early warning and observation platforms.
Ground effect aircraft [based on the same principles as the Ekranoplan of the real world] are used quite widely, both at sea, in particular by the Dakshina Nad, and on land where the terrain allows, such as the steppes of Central Asia, allowing the rapid, stealthy transportation of goods and troops from place to place. They are also used because their technology forms an effective counter to ultra-high speed supercavitating torpedoes.
At the opposite extreme, the Holy Russian Empire has, in the past, made use of what are known as Korabl Leda [Ice Ships], vast vessels built of reinforced ice, as vast, slow, largely unsinkable mobile air bases, for use in patrolling and maintaining control of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. [These are basically the same as the ship proposed under Project Habakkuk.] All of them were destroyed by the Qamari Mosht in the last days of the Long War.
Battleships lasted longer relative to the level of technology than was the case in the real world, largely due to the lack of a major war involving naval combat for a long period before the Long War. The Long War quickly showed the inadequacies and vulnerabilities of battleships [much as World War II did in the real world] and led to their replacement by other types of vessels, for example aircraft carriers.
Many of the navies of the world use multi-hulled vessels of numerous different kinds for operations around the world, giving more deck area for weaponry and other equipment. [These are not unlike some designs proposed recently in the real world, such as this.]
Some nations, in particular the Dakshina Nad, make use of vessels propelled by a magnetohydrodynamic drive. This is as effective as conventional propeller-based propulsion but much more stealthy. In particular submarines driven by this means are becoming widely used, as it allows them to avoid detection and destruction by enemy forces, and in particular by supercavitating torpedoes.
All of the militaries of the world use camouflaged uniforms, coloured and patterned for the environment they are intended to be used in. The style of these varies depending on the local culture; in Europe they are not unlike those of the real world, but in India they tend to be move like camouflaged salwar kameez.
One area in which the military technology of this world differs from that of the real world is the high state of development of manned projectiles, missiles and torpedoes, by Holy Russian Empire. These Oryzhiya Mychenichestva [Martyrdom Weapons] have been used since not long after the War of Russian Humiliation by those who accept the official line that the acceptance of martyrdom in the name of the 'old faith' is the only way towards salvation. Although only a small part of the Russian armed forces, they have on occasion proved effective beyond what their numbers might imply.
In addition to all of this, in the aftermath of the Long War, there are considerable quantities of military surplus equipment to be found in various parts of the world. The most common of these are the Bogi Knut [Gods Whip], an assault rifle produced by the Holy Russian Empire for use by its army and other military forces. Because of the low of level of technical knowledge of most citizens of the Holy Russian Empire, the Bogi Knut is highly simple, reliable and robust, qualities that make it an attractive option for irregular forces around the world [it is basically the equivalent of the AK-47 in this world].
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